MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica – While serenading mothers at the Mother’s Day Dinner & Live Show at Day O Plantation Restaurant and Bar in Montego Bay, Courtni Jackson thought of two special women.
Jackson was headliner for the event which also featured singer Billy Joe Neil and steel pan player Cabot Paul.
Her performance was also dedicated to her mother, singer Karen Smith, who died in 2021. As well as her 92 year-old grandmother, Barbara Smith.
“I believe the show went very well, even better than I expected. The crowd was so interactive and I truly enjoyed that,” said Jackson. “Every performance, to me, is super personal because it feels like I’m sharing a piece of myself with the audience and I leave it right there on the stage.”
Some of the songs she did, such as Nancy Wilson’s How Glad I Am and an Aretha Franklin Medley, were staples of her mother’s show. On renditions of Desmond Dekker’s Israelites, The Melodians’ By The Rivers of Babylon and Jimmy Cliff’s The Harder They Come, Jackson was accompanied by her father, legendary bass guitarist Jackie Jackson, who played on the original songs.
A graduate of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Courtni Jackson followed her parents’ path into the music business. She has released a handful of songs and done several live shows.
